Quote:
Originally Posted by A_Rina
It turns out that I need to make a docx file with different styles, but remove the entire design and upload it to Caliber, and then convert it to Epub in the application? But what about headers and footers? (can we call them that? They're those blue bars with years in the corners) Should they be given the "Header and Footer" style? They are important for later indicating the years in the table of contents.
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Only print replica such as FXL or PDF or DJVU has headers and footers. Real ebooks don't have headers and footers from the ebook, though the app or reader GUI might generate simple headers and footers.
You design using paragraph styles in Word or LO Writer. Even things that look like lists should not use "list" direct format, but be suitable indented / hanging paragraph styles with list bullets or number or letters typed, as ereaders don't support all the list features of a web page or wordprocessor. Paper would use multiple page styles and size important. Only one default "paper size" with no headings or footers for ebooks.
Headings, chapter text, section text, footnotes etc are all simply paragraph styles (set heading level to 1 or 2 for chapters) and use no more than 1, 2 and 3 for heading levels. Any other heading should be body text level because of limitations of ebook system Table of Contents generated from heading levels and just look like a heading.
Your own custom inline contents page can have anything you like by bookmarking (anchor) at start of destination line and making that contents (or appendix) text a link.
All ebooks have a separate system Table of Contents brought up by GUI of ereader or app. This is automatically created by calibre from a docx, and if there are page breaks for level 3 headins then a line in Calibre conversion dialog needs changed under Structure Detection
Default is
Code:
//*[((name()='h1' or name()='h2') and re:test(., '\s*((chapter|book|section|part)\s+)|((prolog|prologue|epilogue)(\s+|$))', 'i')) or @class = 'chapter']
For three levels
Code:
//*[((name()='h1' or name()='h2' or name()='h3') and re:test(., '\s*((chapter|book|section|part)\s+)|((prolog|prologue|epilogue)(\s+|$))', 'i')) or @class = 'chapter']
Use Tablet as "Page Setup" in Calibre as it doesn't change images
Many ereaders/apps only do a page break on a start of file. Do put Insert Page Break Before (without picking a style) in paragraph style of any text using levels 1, 2 or 3 if a page break is required, but on the docx conversion to epub by calibre the structure detection splits the book to separate HTML files inside the epub (which is just a zip folder) and puts all the docx styles in a single CSS file.
So your ebook design/layout is the style properties for each part of text (any text inc headings, chapters, preambles, footnotes that is separated by the <enter key>.
Disable hyphenation and don't insert soft hyphens as the wordprocess page size is irrelevant to real ebooks and ereaders/apps mostly do their own hyphenation.
All white space and justification styles is by paragraph style properties. Never enter more than one space (search for 2 and replace with 1 till none found!), never use tabs, never enter blank lines. All those appearances are done in paragraph style properties.
I usually use an A5 page size or similar for ebooks. When the content is throughly proofed & edited I make a copy of the file, or paste each block style to a new template, for PDF. The PDF version of the document has multiple page styles such as: front matter, contents, left body, right body, start of chapter, end matter etc. Each style can have its own header & footer, page number system etc, or none. Look at any paperback novel or text book. The PDF page styles all have specified paper size for the print crop size and suitable margins/padding for binding, outer edge, top, bottom and gutter if columns.
Then if it's a book, simply PDF export. The InDesign only needed for newspapers, magazines etc. A PDF export sent to printing /POD operator will produce paper exactly as your PDF and Word (for maybe 20+ years, older versions needed a PDF printer or PDF plugin) and LO Writer can both produce perfect PDF files for publishing. If you need equations or similar then the epub work flow needs Sigil and MathML and epub3. A PDF version might use LaTex in the work flow.
Avoid tables in epub. They might not work. For example on an epub using alternate styled sequential short paragraphs works better than a table with two columns. Test on Lithium or PocketBook or Bluefire apps on a phone with a small screen to see what happens to images and tables. More than 1/2 ebooks are read on a phone. You can get some idea by also making the desktop viewer window (with TOC etc off) approximately phone sized. I test websites that way to, using "responsive" design that works on a 4.3″ phone or 4K monitor full screen.
Most people hate PDF, DJVU, Print Replica / FXL, as it mostly only works on decent resolution 10″ or larger tablets in portrait and might be awkward to unusable on many smaller laptops and Chromebooks that can only be used in landscape. Only PDF, DJVU, Print Replica / FXL etc can reliably have a background and it will annoy anyone using eink or a phone (most ebooks are on phones).